Mark Divver: Meehan’s loss felt throughout the entire state

Friday

Feb 21, 2014 at 12:05 PM

Clearing away a few loose pucks while waiting for the American and Canadian men to face off in Sochi on Friday:Rhode Island’s tight-knit hockey community was saddened by the recent death of John Meehan...

Mark Divver Assistant Sports Editor markdivver

Clearing away a few loose pucks while waiting for the American and Canadian men to face off in Sochi on Friday:

Rhode Island’s tight-knit hockey community was saddened by the recent death of John Meehan of Greenville.

Meehan, 55, was a first-team All-State defenseman and the captain of La Salle Academy’s 1976 Rhode Island state championship team.

After a post-graduate year at Phillips Andover Academy, he played four solid seasons at Yale University. After college, Meehan played pro hockey in Spain.

“He was a humble guy, well thought of by everybody,” according to Jim Harrington, who was a freshman on the La Salle team when Meehan was a senior.

“He was a real leader, the epitome of a team-first guy. A great captain,” said Harrington.

Meehan, who owned a business that built homes, was a fixture in Rhode Island men’s leagues.

“Anyone will tell you he was still a terrific player. He skated in the La Salle alumni game on Jan. 18,” said Harrington.

Condolences to Mary Lou Meehan and daughters Madison and McKenzie.

Brown took it on the chin not once but twice the other day when two prize recruits — winger Miles Wood and goalie Blake Weyrick — dropped their verbal commitments to the Bears.

Wood, a 1995 birthdate, was drafted in the fourth round by the New Jersey Devils last year. He is a junior at the Noble & Greenough School in Dedham, Mass.

Weyrick, a ’96, plays for the United States National Team Development Program’s U-18 squad and is one of the highest-ranked North American goalies for the NHL Draft in June.

They are the kind of high-profile recruits that Brown, unfortunately, rarely has been able to land. Through circumstances well beyond the control of the coaching staff, things didn’t work out with Wood (academics) and Weyrick (financial aid).

Miles Wood, whose older brother Tyler is a freshman defenseman at Brown, was a potential program-changer for the Bears. The word is he is likely to end up at either Boston University or Boston College. His adviser is East Greenwich’s Peter Fish, a former BU teammate of Terrier coach David Quinn of Cranston.

Providence College has been scouting goalies all winter in case Jon Gillies signs with Calgary this spring.

The Friars recently watched ’93 Olli Kalkaja of Rio Grande Valley of the North American Hockey League and ’96 Daniil Gerasimov of Philadelphia of the Eastern Hockey League. The 6-foot-4 Kalkaja is a Finn; Gerasimov, who is 6-3, is Russian.

PC had been recruiting Weyrick, but is no longer interested. The Friars dropped out before he committed to Brown.

Brown and PC are looking to improve their playoff position as they head into the second-to-last weekend of the regular season.

The Bears (7-10-1 in the ECAC, 10-12-3 overall) hold the final home-ice slot for the first round of the playoffs as they visit Dartmouth on Friday and Harvard on Saturday. Next weekend, Brown hosts RPI and Union.

PC (7-7-2 in Hockey East, 15-9-6 overall) plays its final home game of the regular season on Friday against UMass-Amherst. PC will end the regular season with a game at UMass on Saturday, and two at Maine next weekend.

The Friars are 0-4-1 in their last five games while scoring just five goals. The Minutemen are second-to-last in the Hockey East in goals against.

Scott Harlow, the coach of the South Shore Kings of the United States Premier Hockey League, says that PC is getting a top player in Kings defenseman Logan Day, who will enroll in the fall.

Day, a ’94 from Seminole, Fla., leads all USPHL defensemen with 13 goals and 40 points in 46 games.

“He has the offensive instincts to be a top defenseman in Hockey East. He’s a little high-risk, high-reward, but he doesn’t get beat a lot and he has the speed to get back.

“The upside for this kid, and what he’s going to be at the next level, are exactly what they need at Providence. They don’t have someone like that on the back end. He’s going to be really good there,” said Harlow, who is a scout for Edmonton and whose son, Matt, is a junior winger at Brown.

Brown captain Dennis Robertson is one of 10 finalists for the 2014 Senior CLASS Award for men’s hockey, which recognizes a senior with notable achievements in four areas of excellence — community, classroom, character and competition.

The 17th-ranked University of Rhode Island men will face 16{+t}{+h}-ranked Lindenwood University on March 6 in the ACHA Men’s Division 1 National Championships in Newark, Del. Twenty teams are in the national tournament. But first the Rams will play in the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League playoffs, starting with Friday’s game against West Chester at Stony Brook University.

Tough luck for Matt Fraser of the Providence Bruins, who will have to have one of his knees scoped. He is expected to miss four to six weeks.

Congrats to Providence Bruin Justin Florek and his wife, Kylie, on the birth of their first child, Lilian Kristine, this week.

Here’s hoping former Mount St. Charles All-Stater Brian Belisle is feeling better. His freshman season at Connecticut College is over because of a concussion.

And finally, congrats to former PC goalie Genevieve Lacasse of the Canadian women’s team, who will come home from Sochi with a gold medal.

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